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Making Sense of the Social World: Methods of Investigation. 2d ed. Daniel F. Chambliss and Russell K. Schutt. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. 2006. 340 pages. $59.95.
If you teach research methods, or for that matter were a student in research methods, you probably know that writing effectively and engagingly about how social scientists study the world is no mean feat. In this second edition of their essentials version of Schutt's larger methods text, Chambliss and Schutt have succeeded in offering a comprehensive, clear, and appealing resource for undergraduate research methods courses. The publishers highlight the new edition's added features-such as expanded coverage of qualitative data analysis, ethical issues, and international examples-and these changes are all well and good. The truly powerful contributions of this book, however, are the clear voice, lucid explanations, and sustained effort to communicate with the student-learner.
The conceptual framework of the book is standard (probably for good reason). It begins with ideas about science and society, moving through conceptualization, sampling, causation and experimental design, survey research, qualitative methods, qualitative data analysis, quantitative data analysis, and reviewing and reporting research. Each chapter is carefully organized around clearly posed questions. For example, in the Conceptualization and Measurement chapter, the authors begin with "What Do We Have In Mind?" "How Will We Know When We've Found It?" and "How Much...